Jefferson County during its meeting Thursday will consider being part of an economic development project that will create a new gateway in and out of Birmingham.

Representatives of Coca-Cola Bottling Company United asked the commission for an economic incentive package of $2 million as the company looks to relocate from its longtime home north of Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport to the former Stockham Valves and Fittings location in Birmingham’s Kingston Neighborhood.

The matter was moved to the agenda of the commission meeting at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

Jeff Traywick, the county’s economic development adviser, said the site has a number of challenges, specifically related to brownfield conditions because of pollution from previous uses.

“Coke is facing a fairly significant infrastructure cost to remediate it,” Traywick said. “The project itself will create 50 new jobs and right now the capital investment sits at $335 million.”

The economic development adviser said working toward the project has been a long endeavor. He displayed his original notes from July 2013 when he was part of the first meeting about the move.

“You can see Coke has been dedicated to trying to find a way to make this site work and they have worked on it for a very long time,” he said.

Hafiz Chandiwala is the executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Coca-Cola Bottling Company United. He said the company has humble beginnings, having been founded in 1902 by Crawford Johnson with one employee and one mule.

“We are now the third-largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States,” he said. “We are the second-largest privately held business in the state of Alabama. We plan to service both the Southeast markets with pride of our brands and our people. We certainly want to continue to service the Birmingham area (and) the Jefferson County area. This facility will support and stretch out to support our facilities in Oxford, in Cullman and in Tuscaloosa.”

The company has more than 770 associates in the area and will retain those in the city. There are plans to create 50 new jobs at the new location.

“They were landlocked over where they were,” Joe Knight said of the current Coke United location north of the airport. “This gives them a little bit of additional space to expand or do whatever they need to do as opposed to an eyesore because the plant had been abandoned for many years.”

The new Coca-Cola headquarters will sit on about 106 acres at 4000 Richard Arrington Blvd., formerly 10^th Avenue North. It will be highly visible from Interstate 20/59 and from airplanes as they land at the nearby airport, making it a gateway of sorts from the eastern side of the city.

Hallmark Farms, More Allocations

In another matter, the commission sent to Thursday’s agenda a resolution to amend incentives for the proposed Alabama Farm Center in the Hallmark District, setting a Nov. 30 deadline to secure $80 million.

Gov. Kay Ivey recently signed legislation creating the Agriculture Exhibition Center Corp. to manage the farm center, on the old Hallmark Farms property in Warrior.

Matthew Durdin of the Alabama Farmers Federation and ALFA said the new farm center will rekindle the feel of the state fair when it had a permanent home at the old Alabama State Fairgrounds in Birmingham. He said there now are fairs at the Birmingham Race Course, another in Montgomery and another in Mobile.

“All of them are basically 10-day fairs,” he said. “We’re gonna try to do the same thing. We think we offer a vast, a better experience. That’s what we’re trying to do. A safer, cleaner experience is our model and that’s what we’re gonna try to do for our families in Alabama.

“We should get a good draw,” Durdin said. “We’re just 20 minutes north of Birmingham, we’re 30 minutes from Cullman and an hour and 10 minutes from Huntsville. I think we can have a big draw from north Alabama for this.”

Commissioners also sent allocations from the contingency fund that was set aside last year for projects. That included $250,000 to help with improvements to historic Rickwood Field. That includes the cost of equipment needed to maintain the field to keep it suitable for Major League Baseball.

“The remainder (of the contingency fund) will go to a project that Cal (Markert, the county manager) needs,” Knight said. “That is a software program to where he can holistically plug it in and see what progress is made here in this department.

“Right now, they have to go and do a spreadsheet and stuff like that. It’s going to make his office run more efficiently.”